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sodr2
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Reviews
Gyakufunsha kazoku (1984)
Little Erika loves you!
This is the greatest film ever, the greatest "thing" ever, it's been a long time I've seen a film that's this overwhelmingly funny that left my cup of emotional satisfaction overflowing. The Crazy Family is about exactly what the title implies: -family seemed normal, then went crazy-, and at first I thought it was just the father who would be the only sane one in the family as he tries to cope with the rest, but the director (of course) didn't care about any specially thought out intricate subplots-- everyone is just crazy altogether. Kudos to the actor who plays the father as well, he has the perfect FACE that reads disaster is in the air. The children are also gold: the son being an over-studious student who eventually cracks & the daughter who is an aspiring actress and really adorable too. The remaining family members are just side characters in my mind: the mother is a bit of a hypertensive nymphomaniac and the granddad who moved in and relives his memory as a soldier.
So before everyone's insanity becomes diabolically triumphant and everyone tries to kill each other, the granddad first moves in. His presence is deemed unwanted, so he and the father manually dig out a basement in their living room. The set design is really impressive here, not to mention the subsequent destruction of their house right in a residential area, much like the laughter unleashed within me destroying what remained of my funny-suppressing hormones. ... kill me please
Eien no hito (1961)
Decent, but lacking
Stellar cast (sugar), stellar cinematography (spice) and stellar story (everything nice). These were the ingredients to make the perfect little movie. But Keisuke Kinoshita accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction: wtf soundtrack level 9000. And thus you have the birth of Immortal Love, a movie I had high hopes for (especially with that Nakadai-Takamine duet) but only failed short-- much blame due to the out of place flamenco/Mexican regional score which just had to play throughout the majority of this film and it was absolutely distracting and added this cringe-worthy sentimental feeling to lots of potentially enjoyable scenes.
This is my second Kinoshita film, and it had reminded me a lot of She Was Like A Wild Chrysanthemum mainly for the masterful shots of Japanese landscapes, and only now do I realize he's the same director. I loved the first film, but I found this to be too dragging out. At least it's pretty to look at, and plot-wise it's not that complicated once the film gets going and you get used to the character's names. Boyfriend and cripple guy come back from war. Cripple guy rapes girlfriend have baby, forced to get married. Bastard child grows up problematic for the family, second child is a some totalitarianist and gets in trouble with government, third daughter marries boyfriend's son and cripple guy is like "seriously..." That's roughly it, I'll leave it up to you to get the names. Much of it is heavy family tension, and the constant bickering between the married couple can kinda seem unbuyable, but all somehow concludes in a relieving last minute sigh centred on forgiveness. My favourite scene would maybe be one of the attempted suicide scenes, one with rapids and the other in a volcano- don't know how either of those were shot. I also don't know the significance of the title "Immortal Love"? A film with nothing but unstable relationships? Seriously...
Tanin no kao (1966)
Simply Magneficent
I have a physiology exam tomorrow, but since I realized I'm able to write reviews and this is one of my favorite movies, I feel like ranting for a bit on this particular film. You see, I go out on a limb searching several 'Greatest Films' lists, reading film reviews, obsessing over films, etc and it all boils down to one thing: watching a good film. This... is a good film. You watch it knowing you're not wasting your time because you're having fun because the director is doing lots of fun things, for eg. two people are having a conversation and all of a sudden the camera rotates 90 degrees, or some kid getting an injection and out of no where comes this lady washing a plate on her bed while flying through town, but the best part I think is it's such a good psychological drama, probably the best in its genre (just kidding, I'm only trying to sound professional), but it does dig deep into your psych. Also, very beautifully photographed, this director is something else. OK, maybe I should study now. I hoped you enjoyed this review. Thank you for reading.